Blog entries tagged Churches

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ISIS Threatens US Churches This article is worth reading because the front lines are now churches and cafes and Christmas markets and anywhere people congregate. I have two further thoughts on this: 1) ISIS understands that Christmas is a deeply Christian observance. They attack us because we are the “people of the cross” who worship […]

Recently we printed a booklet called When the Foundations are Destroyed. This short message encourages Christians to have tenacious, winsome courage in the face of the moral and spiritual crisis facing our nation. After the recent Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, many Christians wonder how they should respond. This booklet provides an answer. We’re […]

A friend who serves in leadership at his church called to talk about some big decisions the leadership team is facing. The details don’t matter except to note that the decisions will have a big impact on my friend and his family and on the church he serves. Several times during the conversation (at least four times, I think) he mentioned the …

A few thoughts on a variety of topics:1. The China broadcasts continue three times a week (M-W-F) at 6 AM CDT (7 PM China time). Check out our Chinese website and the iPhone and Android apps.2. We have just posted the Spring 2012 KBM Newsletter with the headline “We Need More Anchors.” Later this month we expect delivery of 100,000 copi...

New England has a reputation as a difficult place to do ministry. One pastor from Massachusetts called it a “cold” region for gospel ministry. But almost everyone senses that a “quiet revival” is underway. No, it’s not like the South where megachurches sprout up like dandelions in the spring. But churches are growing i...

Southbridge, MAI’m writing this update from the lobby of the Southbridge Conference Center, a vast convention center built on the site of the former American Optical Company building. We arrived on Friday after a longish trip from Tupelo via Memphis, Detroit, and Hartford. Someone welcomed us on Facebook by saying that, “No one ever come...

When you travel, things don’t always work out as you had planned.I’m writing this note from my hotel room in India at the very moment when I had planned to be finishing my sermon at the pastor’s conference. But our plans were waylaid when we discovered that this is a Muslim holiday of some sort, and they have planned a huge rally ...

This little boy represents the future of the Chinese church.Earlier this week his mother put him down for a nap in the apartment where we stayed in Dalian. His grandfather serves as a church worker in a Chinese city with very few Christians. He and his mother and father and grandfather came to Dalian to spend two days with us. I was very pleased wh...

If you want one picture that will explain one part of modern China, this will do as well as anything else we saw. If the picture looks like a church, that’s because this building was once a church. After the 1949 Revolution the church was closed and the building taken over by the government. In recent years some savvy businessmen bought the b...

The question came from a young man pastoring his first church. I don’t know much about the congregation he serves except that it is small and filled with mostly older folks who don’t want to change.At least that’s how the young pastor sees it. Both he and his wife have been feeling discouraged. After three difficult years, here is…

A few years ago–about eight years ago, I suppose–I received an email out of the blue from a man named H. B. Charles, Jr. who wrote to ask me a question about something I had written about preaching. I didn’t know him or the church he pastored, Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Through an email correspondence we b...

“I stole soap from Walgreen’s so I could wash myself at a fire hydrant.""I lived in my car near Humboldt Park until I was arrested.""I don’t remember much about my 20s because I was on drugs the whole time."When the police arrested him, he was put in jail for 30 days. Sometime during that period he fo...

Yesterday at 4 PM I met for an hour Here are the different messages I preached at Reno:When You are Falsely Accused Did I Make a Mistake? The Whole Bible in Thirty Minutes Overcoming Self-Importance How Much Sin Will God Forgive? ...

This morning Marlene and I are flying to Reno, Nevada for the Spring Bible Conference at Sierra Bible Church. This is our fourth time to visit this fine congregation. It all started almost ten years ago when I spoke for the Dallas Seminary Week at Mt. Hermon Bible Conference in California. Someone from the church in Reno heard me and invited me to ...

This morning we wrapped up the John 17 conference in Rochester, New York. Church leaders from all over the region gathered for three days of fellowship and biblical teaching. Pastor Ray Viola of Koinonia Fellowship was on a missions trip to India two years ago when after preaching on Jesus’ prayer in John 17, especially the prayer that &ldquo...

I have a friend who will soon be interviewed by a pulpit committee for the position of pastor. He wrote to a few friends asking for some “killer questions.” Here are a few of the suggested questions:1. What’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to address?2. When people in this community hear the name of this church, what d...

On Sunday morning we attended a house church in Dalian. They moved to the apartment after the authorities forced them out of the rented facilities where they had been meeting. Since then some believers have left but the core remains strong and committed.The first people arrive at 8:30 AM to pray. Following Chinese cust...

Yesterday Peter took us on a ride outside of Dalian. It’s hard to explain the nature of Chinese cities because they consist of massive apartment buildings that sprawl out in every direction. The vast majority of people live in those high-rise buildings. You don’t see very many single-family homes. There are a few but not so many. So the...

On Sunday morning we worshiped with the English-speaking congregation at Youngnak Presbyterian Church in Jeju City. This growing congregation is one of hundreds of churches planted by the mother church in Seoul. It currently attracts around 1600 worshipers every Sunday, making it the largest church on Jeju Island. Until recently the church did not ...

Many of you know that Pastor Peter is our “Keep Believing” man in China. He pastors a house church in a large Chinese city. Last Tuesday the authorities came and without explanation began to harass him and the people of his congregation. Here is the story (edited for security reasons):Without knowing why, our church has been under inter...

No one who met our Lord ever stayed the same. If Christmas tells us why Jesus came, then Easter tells us he fully accomplished his mission. In between those two events we have the whole life of Christ. That’s our focus as we walk “In His Steps”, a book of 47 devotionals for the season of Lent (the period of time leading up to Easter).

“Equipping and encouraging people to keep believing in Jesus”

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”